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(Do you have Pinterest? Pin this for later!)

How I quickly boosted my blog’s traffic – for free!

Hey all, welcome back!

I’m so excited because I discovered really interesting ways to increase blog traffic, while resulting in hugely increased monetization!

If you’ve followed some of my popular blogging articles, you’ll know that I had gone almost a full year without making much money blogging.

(Life happens, you know.)

There’s nothing special I did to find out this little change, other than brainstorming and being willing to try new things, but I have never seen anyone else write about this trick – if they even tried it!

Most bloggers just won’t tell you the honest truth.

In fact, in one of my articles I’ve talked about the money, time, and incredible effort it takes to start earning money by blogging, and let me tell you, it isn’t easy.

We all scour Pinterest and Google, searching terms about “how to make more money blogging”, and “why isn’t my blog making money”.

I’ve been there…for almost a solid year now.

But just weeks ago, it all changed.

So, as you may know, most early blogging traffic comes straight from Pinterest.

With this in mind, there are other ways I’ve written about that have generated a steady stream of traffic, including:

• Using Tailwind (especially Tailwind Tribes) 
• Manually pinning on Pinterest
• Messing with each page and post’s SEO (also, on Pinterest)

And what’s great is those methods are effective, but not extremely. I roll my eyes whenever I see articles that promise explosive traffic from joining Tailwind, for example.

Sure, it is pretty much necessary for every blogger, but it’s not THE SOLUTION to our traffic and monetization problems. 

Why You Should Want A Boost In Traffic

This should be an obvious statement, but sometimes people are too afraid to make a change to their blog.

I’ve read about some people too scared to even Google something as simple as “ways to increase blog traffic”!

But, I understand. Taking the leap and creating a blog is already a huge hurdle – why make more changes?

You see, I spent MONTHS designing my blog.

I watched countless YouTube videos, attempted CSS, and did all I could.

If you can imagine, I spent more time designing than writing! I cannot even come up with how many hours I dedicated to the early stages of this blog. It’s pretty crazy.

Traffic boost = profit boost. Right?

As long as you have your blog set up for monetization, whether that is through ads, affiliate links, or products, what many new bloggers have to realize is that these things don’t just sell themselves.

There is a lot that goes into bringing new traffic in, and to get to be one of those coveted “six figure bloggers”, you have to be comfortable with growth – and being okay with changes to your blog is the foundation!

How I Started Driving Incredible Traffic to My Blog (Immediately)

I took this course when I began blogging, which I LOVED, and one helpful piece of advice I learned was to NOT spend a ton of time on your blog’s theme and layout at the beginning.

I didn’t listen.

I spent HOURS ON HOURS tweaking my blog, and I changed it over and over. I spent countless hours to make it “look perfect”, all to find a different way to change it soon after.

At first, I used a free theme.

(We all do, because blogging is hella expensive.)

After 3 months, I found the Divi theme by ElegantThemes. (no, this is not the “trick” I will tell you about)

It is literally the “world’s #1 WordPress theme”, and I read tons of articles that convinced me it was THE theme to go with.

I chose to buy this theme because it promised to be beginner friendly and the most customizable theme out there.

Well, I am here to tell you a few really important things I learned from this theme:

1. It, indeed, is VERY customizable and easy to learn
2. It is NOT great for bloggers

I had literally spent $90 on a theme that wasn’t even built for bloggers.

Unfortunately I learned that it was NOT optimized for being a blogging website.

At. All.

I feared that I made a huge mistake, and it was not until a few weeks ago that I found a solution AND it immediately boosted both my traffic and monetization.

I discovered that, when you buy Divi from ElegantThemes, you ALSO get their new theme called “Extra”.

Extra was built solely for bloggers and magazine-like websites, and when I discovered that I already had full access to Extra, I immediately downloaded it.

But, how did this impact my blog’s traffic and ability to earn more money?

Since this theme is literally built to be the most customizable and beginner-friendly blogging theme, every aspect of its design is created to result in more clicks, longer time spent on your page, and to have a streamlined mobile display.

Literally the way to make money blogging is: bring in traffic -> have a reader click on a link (ex. affiliate link) -> reader makes purchase or signs up -> blogger gets a small compensation

I was blown away after making this theme change, at how many clicks and conversions I was making, and, I kid you not, it was immediate.

How To Easily Change Your Blog’s Theme

If you’re a blogger, the Extra theme (or simply the Divi theme for that matter) is an awesome option to consider!

Not only was it designed for bloggers, but I’ve started noticing tons of my favorite big-time blogging sites that use it!

To check it out, head over to the ElegantThemes website here, and go to their tab for the Extra theme.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, it isn’t super cheap, at around $90, but you get a lot for the price, including:

• BOTH the popular Divi and Extra themes
• The coveted Divi Builder plugin, which allows you to fully customize your blog from top to bottom (ON ANY THEME!)
• The Monarch social media plugin, which (if you’re on desktop right now) allows the reader to click to share your posts – there are tons of unique options within this plugin
• Bloom Email Optin plugin, which I don’t use at the moment, but plan to now that my theme is more optimized!
• Really awesome customer service (I had to use them once to fix a bug on Divi, and I was impressed)
• Ability to use the themes on UNLIMITED websites

Is it worth spending the extra money to get a fully responsive theme that is built to increase your traffic AND profits?

What I will say is that I don’t have some “special affiliate discount” for you, to try to get you to buy something from me.

I am just here to tell you what has worked for me because I’ve been so excited with the positive turnout!

I thought Divi was the solution to that problem MONTHS ago, and although it was decent for the time being, it was nothing compared to what I use now.

And, I haven’t even taken advantage of all the features!

I just am using the basic features at the moment (I have a life, too, and don’t have endless hours to play around on my blog) and I’ve seen an incredible boost from simply making a theme change.

Some extra tips that I learned along the way!:

• BACKUP YOUR WEBSITE before changing themes! There are bound to be a glitch or two along the way. If, for any reason you need to switch back, make sure you have a backup!
• LEARN AHEAD OF TIME about how the theme works. I’ve loved how ElegantThemes has tons of YouTube videos and articles of step-by-step ways to make changes to your website, quickly.

Let’s Keep Learning!

Ready to learn more than just ways to increase blog traffic?

Check out a handful of my other popular articles about blogging! It’s always a good idea to learn as much as you can!

• Your FREE Step-By-Step Guide to Starting a Money Making Blog
• How to Be Confident as a Blogger and Skyrocket Your Profit!
• 6 Affiliates EVERY New Blogger Should Join!
• My Favorite Books for New Bloggers!

Thanks for hanging out with me! 

Do you have other suggestions that other readers could benefit from? The comment section is just a scroll away!!

All advice and opinions provided in this post are reflections on experience and are for educational and entertainment purposes only. Affiliates were used in this article. Please see our disclaimer page details.